Letter to the Editor: It's time to make Terra State great again

FREMONT - When I was a professor at Terra State Community College, I often had 100 students or more per semester and with syllabus preparation, preparing for class lectures, classroom presentations, keeping up with current events in business, grading papers and tests, time was passing by without notice.

I enjoyed my students and really looked out for their best interests. But the politics at the college took its toll and often would ruin the good feeling I felt from teaching. I remember so vividly the exhilaration of the classroom only to find when I left that room, a sense of doom would creep back in. I couldn't understand why the administration at Terra State Community College didn't make students their top priority.

Since my retirement seven years ago from Terra State, I now can see just how destructive the workplace was where gossip and politics were the rule. Narcissism at the top made management numb to feeling towards their employees. That self-serving attitude and indifference toward employees created the "pits of hell" description where my only temporary escape was to go home at night.

Today, under President Jerome Webster's direction, I know that this description still holds true for many who work there. Since I have been away from that environment for a significant period of time, I now know that this description is no exaggeration.

If the Board of Trustees would start minding the store, the college, which is now broken, would have a chance of mending itself. Webster, who has the board in his hip pocket, will continue his foolish spending that could close the college's doors forever.

Terra is the community's college, not Jerome Webster's. Knowing Webster as the person he is, he will jump ship onto his self-serving raft, leaving Terra State Community College underwater. The motto from the surrounding communities, employees, and those retired from Terra should be, "Make Terra great again!"